


Powerless

by WayWardWonderer



Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt, Rescue, Wounded, dying, friends - Freeform, injured, saved - Freeform, suffocation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 05:59:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12475004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WayWardWonderer/pseuds/WayWardWonderer
Summary: The MST3k crew deal with a sudden power outage aboard the Satellite of Love. As Joel Robinson loses oxygen his robot friends Cambot, Gypsy, Tom Servo and Crow work to save their sole human companion. Meteor showers are such a drag... The only thing more annoying is watching a bad movie in the theatre!





	Powerless

Another day aboard the Satellite of Love, another day of Joel Robinson attempting to keep his beloved robots in line while trying to keep his own sanity in tact.

Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot were playing flashlight tag in the ship's lower decks, affectionately referred to as the ship's 'basement'. Gypsy was in the engine room, as per usual, keeping the ship's oxygen mixture correct and the heat shields' trajectory fixed on the sun.

Joel himself was on the main bridge with Cambot, going through and organizing their documented weeks as captives aboard the Satellite of Love.

"Okay Cambot, we have the first and second years of our journey properly labeled and filed away in your memory banks. Before we begin work on year three I want to make a back up copy for Gypsy, just in case-"

An odd, inconsistent thumping sound could be heard on the hull of the ship. Then the unmistakable sound of a massive generator suddenly shutting off filled the ship simultaneously as every light flashed off and filled the ship with seemingly eternal darkness. The only natural light came from the stars outside the windows and the small red glowing light on Cambot's head. Everything fell silent and still.

"Uh, Magic Voice? Did we lose power?"

The feminine disembodied voice didn't respond. Apparently she needed power too!

"Magic Voice? You there?"

Silence.

Uh, Cambot?" Joel asked the small robot only because he was the only other intelligent being on the bridge. "Did we lose power?"

Cambot chirped and nodded his body up and down to signal 'yes'. Joel saw the red light bobbing up and down and understood the answer.

"Gypsy?" Joel called out loudly but received no response. "Crow?" Same silent reply. "Servo?" Still nothing. "Great. Power failure and I don't know where everyone else is. Glad you're with me Cambot, you'll have to be my eyes for me until I find a flashlight."

Again Cambot chirped and nodded his body up and down to answer in the affirmative.

"Lead the way, show me to the door." Joel followed Cambot's red light to the door leading down the corridor to the engine room and zipped his jumpsuit up higher just under his chin. "Man space is cold!"

Joel approached the door but it didn't open. "Right, now power." Joel breathed into his palms and rubbed his hands together to warm them up. "Let me try pushing it open manually." He planted his hands firmly on the door and pushed on it with all his strength but it didn't budge. "No go..."

Cambot made a sad chirping sound.

"It'll be okay Cambot." Joel put his hand on Cambot's head. "Gypsy will get things powered up again." He coughed a little and took in a deep breath. "The air's already getting stale. Glad she tends to work fast..." He muttered to himself. "Crow and Servo should be on their way to help her." He coughed again. "I hope."

Cambot let out another sad chirp and leaned his head against Joel's arm sympathetically.

* * *

 

Gypsy was in the engine room struggling to reboot the ship's engines and primary functions. The darkness wasn't a hindrance to her since her eye was in itself a flashlight, but trying to restore the ship's systems alone without knowing the cause of the blackout was a challenge.

"Oh my stars!" She connected her mind to the ship's internal log to locate the source of the problem. "There's a breech in the hull in the lower decks! It's draining the oxygen. I have to find a way to repair the damage, but I'm trapped in the engine room!"

Gypsy checked the gauges monitoring the ship's internal functions. "Power is at 10%, hull temperature rising, internal temperature dropping and oxygen level is... Oh no! 86% and dropping fast! Joel!"

* * *

 

Tom had his flashlight stored away inside his clear plastic dome, which provided a sole beacon of light in the otherwise black basement. He didn't know what had happened and was a little scared. "Crow? Crow, where are you?"

Crow didn't answer, he instead chose to remain silent as he sat under the metal staircase with his flashlight clutched in his shaking claws.

"Crow? C'mon man! Game over! Where are you?"

"Here..." He responded shyly. "Follow the light!" He shone his flashlight upward illuminating his face.

"Hey there you are!" Tom hovered over to Crow. "What happened? Everything's off!"

"Blackout!"

"Joel won't be too happy. I think power's his favorite thing." He looked around the basement. "I wonder what caused the blackout?"

"Probably that small meteor shower that passed us."

"There was a meteor shower?" Tom asked confusedly.

"Yeah, like five minutes ago."

"Why didn't I see anything?"

"Because you weren't under the stairs when a meteor ripped a hole in the hull."

"What?! The hull's been breached?! Where?!" Tom looked around in a panic.

"It's close, but don't worry it's not a huge hole."

"Any hole in the hull is huge! Where IS IT?"

"Under my foot."

"Your foot?" Tom looked down at Crow's lanky legs and saw that one had been sucked through the hole. "Crow! Your leg is sealing off the breach!"

"Not very well, I can feel the air escaping and it's escaping quickly."

"Well we don't have to worry, we don't breathe. Only Joel..." Tom realized that Joel was in great danger. "JOEL!"

"WHERE?!" Crow dumbly asked while looked around the basement. "I don't see him!"

"No, Crow, if we lose all the air in the ship, all the oxygen, then Joel will die!"

"Uh-oh..."

"Uh-oh is right!" Tom looked around the dark basement for some inspiration. "We have to seal the breach permanently or Joel's gonna' die!"

"What do we do?"

"Right now? PANIC!"

"Good idea!"

The two bots let out screams of fear, worry, confusion and despair as they panicked with great energy. "WE'RE ALL GONNA' DIE!"

"At least Joel will!" Crow corrected. "AHHHH!"

* * *

 

Back on the bridge Joel was sitting on the floor leaning his back against the sole desk in the middle of the room. He had his knees curled up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. His hands were frantically rubbing his arms in an attempt to keep warm.

He coughed again. "Cambot?" His voice was quiet, almost hoarse. "Think you could find a way to meet Gypsy in the engine room?" He coughed again.

Cambot shook his head back and forth to signal 'no'.

Joel cleared his throat, his teeth were beginning to chatter from the cold. "What about a message? Could you send a message to Gypsy?"

Cambot let out a loud chirp and nodded 'yes' and started recording Joel as he began speaking.

"Good." He coughed again. "Tell Gypsy she needs to get the oxygen circulating again..." He paused to catch his escaping breath. "or I'm not going to survive."

Cambot let out another high pitched chirp as he sent the transmission to Gypsy via the ship's internal log.

"Thanks Cambot..." Joel patted Cambot again. "I think I'm going to pass out soon. Try to keep me... awake for as long... as possible."

* * *

 

Gypsy, while working on the engines, was still connected to the internal log when Cambot's message was transmitted. "Oh! A message!" She viewed the message and started to feel weak. "Oh no, Joel! I'll do my best!"

Looking back at the gauges she noticed the needle on the oxygen gauge had dropped further: 62%.

"Oh! How I wish I had hands!"

* * *

 

Tom had gone through the vast array of supplies and spare parts in the basement and returned to Crow with a soldering iron and a piece of scrap metal. "Okay, if we can get this metal sheeting over the hole, we solder it in place and seal the breach!"

"Great, but how are we going to do with my leg in the way?" Crow snapped.

"Well, we could just take off your leg..."

"What?! Are you kidding? I love my leg! I'm quite attached to it! Literally!"

"You have extras! You can get a new leg!"

"But I like my leg!" Crow pleaded pathetically.

"So do I, but I like Joel more!" Tom argued logically.

"I knew he was your favorite..."

"Crow! Focus!"

"Sorry... Now, how do we do this?"

"Well, I think if we pull you back and unhook the bolt that secures your leg to your body, it should hold in place long enough for us to put the steel plate over the hole without any thing else getting sucked through."

"Sounds crazy, but so am I. Let's do it!"

"Right!" Tom positioned himself behind Crow and let Crow wrap his arms around Tom's body. "Ready?"

"No!"

"One three! One, two, three!" Tom powered up his hoverskirt to maximum and tried to ascend to the ceiling with Crow hanging onto him.

"It's not working!" Crow yelled over the sound of the hoverskirt.

"It's gotta work!" Tom yelled back. "It's for Joel!"

"We gotta try something else!"

"There is nothing else!"

Crow let go of Tom and watched as the red robot shot toward the ceiling at full speed. Tom screamed in surprise and then in pain as his dome collided with the ceiling and cracked. He fell back to the floor with a heavy 'thud'. His flashlight breaking in the process.

"Ooooh..." Crow winced as Tom fell. "That had to hurt!"

"You think?!" Tom barked as he sat himself upright again. "Why'd you let go!?"

"Because it wasn't working. I told you that already!"

"Fine, we'll think of a new plan." Tom sat next to Crow. "You're such a baby!"

"Dickweed!"

* * *

 

On the bridge Joel was now laying on his side, he was too tired to sit upright any longer. With the aid of Cambot's light he watched through half closed lids as his breath left his body in small clouds and disappeared into nothingness.

"Cambot..." Joel was barely speaking above a whisper. "I'm glad you're here." He coughed weakly and wheezed a little. "I don't want to die... alone." He closed his eyes.

Quickly Cambot chirped and pressed his head against Joel's side in attempt to keep him awake.

Joel opened his blue, glazed over eyes again and he looked at Cambot with blurry vision. "I'm still... awake." He lied.

Cambot knew better and continuously nudged Joel's arm, hands and shoulder to try to keep the ailing human awake.

Reacting quickly Cambot sent the recent footage as a second transmission to Gypsy in the engine room.

"There!" Gypsy watched as the lights on the ship flickered back to life. The engines hummed to life and the gauges began to improve. "Power is back on! Now I can get to..." She noticed that the oxygen display hadn't changed and was still depleting: 33%. "Oxygen is still dropping! The breach!"

Cambot's transmission reached Gypsy. She saw Joel laying on the floor of the bridge disturbingly pale, barely conscious, barely breathing.

"Joel!" Gypsy went into a mild panic. "I need to find that breach and FAST!" Now that the power had been restored the doors were opening again, she was free to move about the ship once more. The ship's internal diagnostics were in full swing. Scanning over the system's analysis Gypsy was able to pinpoint the location of the breach. "Found it! It's in the basement!"

* * *

 

Crow was getting annoyed. His leg was still stuck and he had no idea how to get it out of the hull breach. "Any ideas yet Servo?"

"We could always saw your leg off."

"No way! That'd hurt as bad as 'Manos'!"

"It wouldn't be that bad!"

"You maybe right, but it'd still hurt nonetheless!"

"Don't be such a puss! You'll lose a limb but Joel could lose his life!"

"Doesn't he have another one? I've played 'Mario Bros.' with Joel!"

"That's a game you moron! Real life doesn't work like that!"

"Well then we're screwed! I can't think of anything and you can't think of anything... Poor Joel."

Gypsy, still connected to the satellite's internal systems, burst into the basement with a hectic rush. "You guys! There's a hull breach and Joel's in danger!"

"We know!" Crow snapped. "We already found the breach!"

"You did?! Where?"

"Right here. Under my leg."

"Can you move?"

"Noooooo!" Crow replied sarcastically. "I just enjoy the feeling of having a limb being ripped away by the vacuum of space!"

Gypsy didn't appreciate his attitude. "Crow! Joel is going to die! We have to move! Oxygen is already down to 27%!"

"I can't! I'm stuck fast! If I could move Servo would've sealed the breach already!"

"Alright, that's it! I'm coming in!"

"Wait, what?!" Crow barely had time to register Gypsy leaning down and grabbing ahold of his upper body with her entire mouth. "Hey! What're you doing?!"

Gypsy began pulling Crow up and out of the hull breach, his leg slowly slipping back into the ship.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Crow whined.

Tom was at the ready with the metal sheet. "That's it Gyps'! You almost got him!"

With one last firm tug Gypsy managed to rip Crow free from the breach in the hull. The two robots fell back as the remaining oxygen began getting sucked out through the now unobstructed breach.

"Whoa!" Tom commented as the steel plate was pulled from his inarticulate little hands and sucked down over the hole. "Hey, that worked!"

Gypsy spit Crow out of her mouth, the gold bot whining as he flew though the air. "Quick! Use the soldering iron!"

"I, I can't!" Tom admitted. "My hands..."

"Oh for crying out loud..." Gypsy grabbed the torch with her mouth and quickly began soldering the metal plate into place.

Crow limped toward Tom and Gypsy and watched her work. The blue sparks fascinated him. "Pretty!"

Gypsy tossed the torch on the floor. "There! Uh-oh, the oxygen level is down to 9%! I have to turn it back on from the engine room, you two check on Joel!"

"Right!" Tom commented as he quickly hovered up the stairs and out of the basement. "Follow me! Charge!"

Cambot was desperately trying to wake up Joel, but he was unconscious and barely breathing at all.

Tom arrived on the bridge and spied Joel laying on his side unconscious on the floor with Cambot. "Joel!" He landed next to his dying friend. "Don't do this to me man! Don't leave us! We still need you!"

Cambot let out a series of chirps as if he was pleading along with Tom.

Crow limped onto the bridge. "Joel!" He knelt down next to him. "Wake up!"

Tom shook his head. "He's hardly breathing, what do we do?"

"Let's roll him onto his back. You know, try to shake him awake!"

"Good idea!"

The three bots worked together to roll Joel from his side to his back. After Crow grabbed onto Joel's shoulders and shook. "Wake up man! Come on!"

"Crow, look at him! I don't think he'll-"

Gypsy came rushing onto the bridge with an oxygen tank in her mouth. She placed it on the floor next to Joel. "The oxygen is being restored but he can't wait any longer!"

"Where'd you get this Gyps'?" Tom had never seen a spare oxygen tank stored anywhere on the ship before.

"It was in engineering! Put the mask over his face!"

Crow grabbed the plastic mask and pressed it against Joel's face. "Check!"

Gypsy used her mouth to turn on the oxygen.

The four robots crowded silently around their downed human companion; their friend, their 'father'.

Tom was staring at Joel's unmoving chest for a few seconds before he pressed his dome against it, listening for any sign of life. "Come on man! Breathe! You have a good heart, a strong heart! You want to live! LIVE!"

Crow leaned over Joel. "C'mon buddy, come back to us!"

Gypsy stared at Joel's pale face. "Were we too late? Is he...?"

Suddenly Joel took in a deep breath, coughed and began breathing at a quicker, normal pace.

"Joel?" Tom stood upright. "Can you hear me?"

Joel began coughing again and his eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Joel!" The robots cried out in happy unison!

"Guys?" As his vision began to clear he saw all four of his robot friends hovering over him. "Hey, what happened to your dome Servo? Are you guys okay?"

"US?!" Tom asked bewildered. "We're fine, it's you who almost bought it! Game over!"

Crow spoke up coyly. "Well, since you asked my leg's a little sore-"

Gypsy nudged him in the back of the head.

"Ow! What?"

Joel felt the oxygen mask on his face. "How long was I out?"

From above Magic Voice answered precisely. "Eight minutes twenty-three seconds. Also, the oxygen level is now stable."

"Nice to hear you again Magic Voice." As Joel tried to sit up the four bots worked together to help him. "Thanks you guys. I wouldn't have made it without you."

Tom let out a sigh of relief. "No problem Joel, but just don't ever scare us like that again!"

"And..." Crow butted in. "you may want to look into meteor-proofing the satellite."

Joel slipped off the oxygen mask and coughed again. "Deal. Just promise me you'll never let the ship go without power for more than five minutes. Power's kinda my favorite!"

**-The End**


End file.
